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Nigerian govt looking to ramp up oil reserves to 40bn barrels

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Nigerian govt looking to ramp up oil reserves to 40bn barrels

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said Nigeria aspires to expand its oil reserves alongside its condensates enormously to 40 billion barrels by 2025, London-based energy and commodities intelligence provider, S&P Global Platts, reported Tuesday.

Sarki Auwalu, the DPR head, said the Nigerian government would accomplish the grand ambition by way of anticipated upscale in exploration activities from the small marginal fields about to be allocated to successful bidders and the proposed oil industry reform that would accelerate investment.

The country’s oil reserves were at 38 billion in 2015 and have consistently fallen between then and now on the back of factors like paucity of funds, security constraints in the Niger Delta region and uncertainty surrounding government’s energy sector overhaul, which has impeded growth in fresh exploration programs, according to industry experts.

Read also: Deregulation aiding modular refineries to spring up –DPR

“Nigeria’s target of 40 billion barrels oil/condensate reserve by 2025 is a realistic and achievable target.”

“The policies and programs being implemented by the federal government, including the ongoing bid rounds for marginal oil fields, reforms in the oil and gas sector are geared toward realizing these aspirations,” said Auwalu at an online event.

Nigeria hopes to raise its gas reserves to 210 trillion cubic feet (tcf) by 2025 and to 220 tcf by 2030, according to Auwalu.

Crude reserves declined 0.2% to 36.8 billion barrels in January from a year earlier, the DPR said in June, causing Nigeria to fall behind the target of expanding reserves as investment fades.

The country previously aimed to increase oil reserves to 40 billion barrels by 2020 and later by 2023.

In the first week of June, it opened a bid round for 57 marginal oilfields situated on swamp, land and offshore terrains in the Niger Delta, hoping it would rev up oil reserves and revenues eroded by the recent oil crash.

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